[somenomadicguy]

I read through about 1/2 of the AKP "leaks", it was a tremendous waste of time for anything but improving comprehension of Türkçe.

At a point in time, I truly believed Assange's goals were justice and transparency, now I am beginning to feel like he has his own political agenda, and is making sophomoric attempts to affect political change.

In 2016 Wikileaks's agenda seems to be:

  - Anti-Hillary
  - Anti-Hillary
  - Pro-Trump
  - Pro-Putin
  - Anti-Hillary
  - Opportunistic

The AKP leak falls into that last line. The coup happened, it was frightening (I watched two F-16s fly over the city at mach1+ for six-hours, and the helicopter which landed at BJK was so close to us at a cafe we could see the faces of the guys inside when it banked), and they capitalized on that fear to increase their own credibility and to demonize the ruling party here.

Unlike previous leaks Assange and his gang didn't put ANY effort into vetting the "leak". He didn't have to, because within certain crowds Wikileaks is an indisputably trusted source. His perceived persecution makes him beyond reproach, and now any criticism can be blamed on a conspiracy theory.

Rapist? CIA/Sweden persecuting him. Bail jumper? CIA/Mi5 persecution. Committed the crime of jumping bail? CIA/Mi5. Hiding in Ecuador for years? Illegal CIA detention. His best buddy Jake Appelbaum is a rapist? CIA.

This amount of trust and credibility would certainly make it easier for him, or a foreign agent, to spread malware. It's probably just a slip-up on not scanning the emails before publishing. But if it isn't, what are the odds that they are traced back to Russian hackers?

(Edited for typos and formatting. )

[MichaelGG]

Could the anti-Hillary agenda simply be that he has leaks on her? The DNC stuff was damning, as was the reaction. (Bad actor resigns, gets immediately hired without reprimand?) He's said negative Trump stuff - how has he been positive there? If someone brought internal Trump emails, do you think WL wouldn't publish them?

If this had been flipped, and he had only published anti-Trump stuff, would you be making the same comment? (Honest question.)

[grandalf]

You are right to question this. His comment parrots the opinion of the HRC campaign which there is zero evidence for.

[trendia]

I think people's opinions are polarized this year because of the election. If Wikileaks had only released information on the Malaysian Prime Minister, for instance, I doubt that we'd be seeing the same kind of strong opinions about them.

[grandalf]

True. It's odd, though, because even if I did plan to vote for one of the major party candidates, I'd still want to know anything that shed light on corruption they were involved in, character flaws, etc.

It's odd to see people fighting to suppress information about the so-called "good guy" when in fact they ought to be considering why they would vote for someone who was involved in such things. Maybe most people just want to feel loved and protected by a powerful warlord.

[somenomadicguy]

To answer this honestly, I don't know. It would depend on the quality of the data he leaked, and which hostile foreign enemy he sided with against him.

On one hand, I have daughters, and don't want misogynistic defenders of rape-culture having any power over them.

On the other hand, I care about fairness and justice.

On my third hand (yay radiation!), Clinton is an evil sociopath who is bound to be largely ineffective as your president thanks to a republican legislature. Trump, however, is an incompetent demagogue who I think will cause a massive amount of un-needed suffering in this world.

So my honest answer is, I don't know. It probably depends on if I'd taken my meds that day and how emotional I was feeling.

[MichaelGG]

I have daughters. Both main candidates have daughter(s). Which one is a "misogynistic defenders of rape-culture"? The angry seeming person, or the one that's been somewhat involved in denying rape accusations?

[Senji]

The one still married to Slick Willy.

[grandalf]

> I am beginning to feel like he has his own political agenda

This is the position of some of the people/groups he's embarrassed. As if to say "Yes, I've been caught, but the person who helped catch me has it out for me, let's just ignore this".

Also, as the US Army intelligence service underscored a few years ago, Wikileaks is ripe for propaganda use, since information can be provided to WL to suit political goals, and with some information removed to create a specific impression.

The US Army Intelligence analysis also suggested that an effective strategy to harm WL would be to leak materials that would reflect poorly on it and and cause people to question Assange's motives. No doubt all powerful entities (governments, people) realize this. WL has many enemies and so likely many are using both of these strategies as situations permit.

Have you read the details of the rape accusations? Sweden has a particular definition of rape that is far more encompassing of conduct that in most jurisdictions constitutes fully consensual activity. Since the claims against Assange would be considered claims of consensual sex in the US, it's hard for me to take them entirely seriously, yet the label of "Rapist" persists. This phenomenon is truly bizarre.

The question to ask is, what qualities do we most hope something like Wikileaks has, so that it can aid the process of truth, transparency, and careful investigative journalism. I'd suggest the following:

- Strong willingness to work with mainstream news outlets to create high production quality investigative journalism (Assange has done all he possibly could).

- Resilience to meddling by the many enemies one makes (Assange has done well with this).

- Reinforcing the strength and bias-free nature of the institution (Assange has made clear that he finds Trump and Hillary both despicable, yet this comment is ignored by many such as yourself).

[somenomadicguy]

The first 1/2 of your argument: CIA. Let me be clear, I don't support Clinton, Trump, or anybody else, I feel you have to be an evil sociopath to even want to be a world leader.

I think he is just playing sides. Trump doesn't give a crap, but Hillary knows he's after her. Putin has shown an eager willingness to give asylum to Snowden, him, and anybody else. I just think he's a sociopathic narcissist who watched too many thrillers and wants to wield power against governments.

   - Strong willingness to work with mainstream news outlets to create high production quality investigative journalism (Assange has done all he possibly could).

In the beginning, sure, I'll admit you were right on this. The past year or two, however, wikileaks has failed to produce anything of substance. It's "leaks" (of Turkish dessert recipes) have been sloppy at best, irresponsible and dangerous at worst. Not even Fox would be as careless as he was with the personal data of millions of women in an islamist country. Sean Hannity isn't exactly Woodward and Bernstein.

  - Resilience to meddling by the many enemies one makes (Assange has done well with this).

Has he? He seems to be attempting to wield his power against his enemies. Is that resilience, or vendetta?

   - Reinforcing the strength and bias-free nature of the institution (Assange has made clear that he finds Trump and Hillary both despicable, yet this comment is ignored by many such as yourself).

His actions state otherwise. I'm not sure who posts more anti-clinton rhetoric, Trump or Assange. Lately Wikileaks' feed has have been emotional responses to criticisms and perceived sleights, and heavily biased character attacks on his perceived enemies. There hasn't actually been any journalism that I can see.

Assange has a problem with women. His character assaults against Clinton and journalist Zeynep Tukfeci are pretty good indicators of this.

[grandalf]

> The past year or two, however, wikileaks has failed to produce anything of substance.

Is this due to Assange? Or due to the war on whistleblowers? Given the resource constraints of WL, Assange must choose between publishing unredacted information and not publishing at all.

If Assange had not reached out to the worldwide mainstream press, I'd fault him for releasing unredacted material. But the press (and shamefully, the NY Times in particular) has rebuffed Assange and been unwilling to produce investigative stories handed to them on a platter by Assange (via leaked info).

To understand this we must turn to the basic power relationship and realize that major news outlets are largely state propaganda outlets, or at least prefer to act in this role most of the time. Assange did not likely expect this. I certainly didn't, as it seems too cynical a view... of course the NY Times would want to publish details revealing corruption or lies committed by our most trusted officials...

It's easy to vilify Assange and to assume an emotional motive for everything he publishes. Assange's goal is the legitimization of Wikileaks and its maturation into a respected news institution. He cannot get there (especially given his resource constraints) by playing politics. While he does occasionally make a divisive comment, he generally lets the leaked documents speak (unredacted) for themselves.

> His character assaults against Clinton

Are you arguing that the information revealed by the DNC emails is not a reflection of very significant character flaws in Clinton?

[somenomadicguy]

> Is this due to Assange? Or due to the war on whistleblowers? Given the resource constraints of WL, Assange must choose between publishing unredacted information and not publishing at all.

Again, your argument is yet another conspiracy theory. You can't argue against this, because no matter what, it's the Cigarette Smoking Man in the background. And the resource-constraint argument is an excuse for sloppy, irresponsible journalism.

The argument that wikileaks is not at all affected by Assange's emotional and mental state seems to be an attempt to make him out to be an altruistic, infallible god, not a human .

Major news caters more towards the people that give them money, and they base their content choices on their sponsors.

It seems that every time Assange has a bowel movement, all of the major news sources write about it as front-page news, and immediately every comment is about how no major news outlet is reporting on wikileaks.

> Are you arguing that the information revealed by the DNC emails is not a reflection of very significant character flaws in Clinton?

I haven't read them all, so can you clue me into what they exposed about her directly in contrast to what they exposed about the DNC organization?

And were you aware of my other point, his attacks on Zeynep from the New York times? She pointed out the danger the leaks put women in. Instead of saying, "hey, that leak wasn't our fault, but mea culpa anyways, we're sorry". Then when she pointed out that if he'd had some Turks read the emails they'd have laughed and said "don't bother", he again went into a campaign of character assaults against her?

[grandalf]

> your argument is yet another conspiracy theory

Not at all, neither of us knows what information was submitted to WL, so perhaps the issue is that nothing as significant as the war logs was submitted. We know for a fact that the US has significantly tightened up its infosec policies since Chelsea Manning's revelations. These are facts and no conspiracy theorizing is involved whatsoever. My friends who work for the Federal government would never even read this HN thread while at work, so there has been a legitimately chilling effect on the culture as well.

> sloppy, irresponsible journalism

Holding WL to some imaginary journalistic standard is absurd. It would be one thing if the NY Times got the story and overshadowed WL by publishing a carefully redacted, professional piece. But the major news outlets do not for the most part have systems in place for anonymous drop off of data, and simply do not report on much of what WL gets access to. If you ask me, that is the major journalistic failure. Can Assange, with a tiny team, copy edit and responsibly redact everything? Of course not, but we know from his previous releases that he strongly prefers to and that he is operating WL in survival mode at the moment due to harassment from some of the parties he's leaked information about.

> It seems that every time Assange has a bowel movement, all of the major news sources write about it as front-page news, and immediately every comment is about how no major news outlet is reporting on wikileaks.

This statement does not make sense. Assange is not Wikileaks, and Assange's personal failings are not Wikileaks. The stories which don't see much reporting are the actual factual content about corruption and misdeeds by government officials! The problem is that we get stories about Assange's personal details but not any real substance.

I'd rather not sidetrack this discussion into the content of the DNC emails, but would be happy to do so in a different thread.

[varjag]

> Sweden has a particular definition of rape that is far more encompassing of conduct that in most jurisdictions constitutes fully consensual activity. Since the claims against Assange would be considered claims of consensual sex in the US, it's hard for me to take them entirely seriously, yet the label of "Rapist" persists. This phenomenon is truly bizarre.

What's truly bizarre is the crowd who's first to invoke "innocent until proven guilty" is so opposed to the proving part.

You don't really believe that Swedish inquiry is a part of due process, do you? I really doubt if the charges were incriminating whatever constitutes U.S. edition of rape, your position would be any different.

What it come downs to, you guys really really are attached to this fella, simply because he was saying all the right things and going by all the points you read in Cypherpunk Manifesto. You are willing to excuse him things that you'd find inexcusable to anyone from the "establishment".

[grandalf]

> You are willing to excuse him things that you'd find inexcusable to anyone from the "establishment".

Not at all. Please recall that Assange has a legitimate concern about extradition and has had to seek political asylum. In spite of this he has offered to face the charges if some assurance could be made that he would not be taken into custody and extradited.

Since Assange is a political refugee, I take his concerns seriously. He has shown no sign of being unwilling to face the charges, and the new prosecutor has requested them to be dropped.

What I find most upsetting is that there appears to be some sort of strategy going on where the governments are trying to ensnare Assange and get him extradited (and imprisoned for espionage).

While it is possible that Assange did commit espionage, the bigger problem is that the US Government has not faced any accountability for the revelations in the Iraq or Afganistan war logs. We're talking about pretty serious illegal behavior if not war crimes that were revealed, and there have been zero consequences. Bush got re-elected and Obama continued and escalated Bush's policies!

Wikileaks is a tiny "institution" that has focused scrutiny on some very large and powerful institutions. As an American citizen who values transparency and the proper functioning of the checks and balances (and democratic process) as well as the appropriate and desirable adversarial relationship between the press and government, I am profoundly disappointed at the lack of consequences or accountability both for the war logs and for the Snowden revelations.

In terms of the total harm caused by these situations, allowing the US Government to survive these sorts of revelations unscathed and unaccountable is terrifying, and goes strongly against the core principles on which our nation was founded.

In general, Assange is a very minor player who happens to have (boldly, foolishly, selfishly, or whatever) helped to reveal some information that we simply must act on. The messenger is simply not important, nor are his personal failings.

So to correct your misapprehension, the story never should have been about Assange at all, at any point. The story should always have been about the misdeeds and corruption revealed by Wikileaks.

[varjag]

> He has shown no sign of being unwilling to face the charges, and the new prosecutor has requested them to be dropped.

He broke the bail and went on the run. If that doesn't constitute "unwillingness to face charges", am not sure what does.

I would agree with you though that Assange persona isn't particularly important in the grand scheme of things.

[grandalf]

> He broke the bail and went on the run. If that doesn't constitute "unwillingness to face charges", am not sure what does.

He's been confined in an embassy building for quite some time, which is roughly equivalent to a minimum security prison! He'd likely not have faced this level of punishment for the alleged sex crimes even if he'd been found guilty of them. It's important to recall that he's been forced to seek political asylum. Being labeled a rapist and unable to vindicate himself (for fear of extradition) is also likely quite upsetting to him if he's innocent.

[varjag]

Being unwilling to face justice isn't exactly helping his case. But we are making full circle to my initial point: you are unwilling to contemplate that Swedish prosecution is acting in good faith and in due process. And the reason for that is you like the guy.

[wildmusings]

>At a point in time, I truly believed Assange's goals were justice and transparency, now I am beginning to feel like he has his own political agenda, and is making sophomoric attempts to affect political change.

He has always very openly had a political agenda. You just don't like the new flavor of his Koolaid.

[tome]

Absolutely. Astonishing that Hacker News is only just cottoning on to this now.

[at-fates-hands]

>> In 2016 Wikileaks's agenda seems to be:

  - Anti-Hillary
  - Anti-Hillary
  - Pro-Trump
  - Pro-Putin
  - Anti-Hillary
  - Opportunistic

I actually laughed when I read this. I actually laughed when Sean Hannity had him on and was talking about he thinks he should be a free man and what great work he's doing.

Backtrack a few years ago, and it was the Republicans and all their supporters who wanted to tar and feather Assange for the Snowden leaks. Hannity talked about how Assange should be in jail and all the crimes he committed against the US intelligence community, got CIA people killed and on and on and on.

It's clear it depends on who's OX is being gored with Assange, which makes him a unique personality to deal with. I don't think he picks sides, he just always picks the publicity angle and doesn't really care who gets in the line of fire. The funny part is how each side treats him like a savior or some kind of patriot but then when he gets leaked documents on their side, suddenly he's the bad guy?

I just don't like him period, but he does have a flair the dramatic doesn't he?

[protomyth]

I laughed too....

He actually has a pretty consistent agenda - reveal shocking stuff that people don't want revealed, and do it with a dramatic flair. Yes, a couple years back his releases on Iraq / Afghanistan had some things that enraged Republicans and were praised by Democrats. Now he's exposing their house.

He's an agent of chaos with a self promotion streak. Saying his agenda is anything beyond that ignores history.

I'm not a big fan, but I think endangering the non-decision makers is bad.

[varjag]

His agenda can be best described as anti-American (yes I realize it's a very loaded term). He would release whatever hurts American interests most, regardless of who represents the USA at the moment.

[at-fates-hands]

I would agree with that.

Although I'm not sure if that is because the majority of the documents he gets are from the US, or if the US has been, and always will be, a place where secrets are so tightly guarded anybody that has an avenue to expose some of them are going to do so.

Does Wikileaks get documents from other countries? Has he gotten the amount of publicity in other countries from those leaks that he has on his US documents?

[varjag]

I believe it's self-selection by and large. E.g. Wikileaks was decidedly negative on Panama Papers, as much of it implicates the enemies of America. And being an enemy of the USA by default makes you a friend of Assange. Consider this nugget:

https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/717458064324964352

[jshevek]

It strikes me as absurd to say that Assange is pro-Trump, unless you think anti-HRC and pro-Trump are identical positions.

[devy]

There is a difference between Anti-Hilary vs. Pro-Trump. I believe Assange's in the former camp. But since U.S. presidential elections only has a binary choice, some people blur the lines between the two.

[mschuster91]

> His best buddy Jake Appelbaum is a rapist? CIA

Seriously. What has "innocent until proven guilty" devolved into? You're bordering on libel.

Until a court has convicted Appelbaum of the crime of rape, he is not a rapist.

I personally think that the accusations may have a kernel of truth, but are greatly exaggerated by the participants. Only a criminal court is properly equipped with means (both legal and time) to resolve this matter.

[ajamesm]

Al Capone was a gangster. Does that unfounded accusation also inflame your sense of justice? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

'Innocent until proven guilty' concerns the court system, but not the rest of civil society. If someone throws up all the red flags of a rapist, nobody is obligated to balk at them.

[jshevek]

> 'Innocent until proven guilty' concerns the court system, but not the rest of civil society.

To be a truly civil society, we have a moral obligation to raise ourselves to this standard.

[mschuster91]

> 'Innocent until proven guilty' concerns the court system, but not the rest of civil society.

Oh no, it does concern society as a whole, or otherwise libel and defamation would not be classified as crimes...

[ajamesm]

> Until a court has convicted Appelbaum of the crime of rape, he is not a rapist.

Let's be clear that there's a vast difference between "a court has not convicted him of that crime" vs "he did not commit that crime". A statement can be factually true, even if you can't prove it in court and thereby you lack a legal defense against defamation.

Legally, I'm defaming Al Capone right now, because was into racketeering. It might be unwise to say that, as it would open me to prosecution, but it's certainly not untrue for that reason. (I've thoughtfully considered the risk, and will accept any libel charges from his estate.)

In any case, were Al Capone still alive, you would have to be a complete idiot to treat him as anything but a gangster. Feel free to extend the analogy on your own, and conclude what you will about the public figures in tech who face several rape accusations.

[logfromblammo]

Al Capone was a tax evader! How dare you slander such an otherwise upstanding, legitimate businessman with accusations of crimes of far greater severity than those which were actually proven beyond reasonable doubt by prosecutors!~

[empath75]

He's always had a political agenda:

http://cryptome.org/0002/ja-conspiracies.pdf

They're sometimes useful, and sometimes useful idiots. I think groups like wikileaks are a good thing, and it would be better if there were more of them, to prevent what seems to have happened here where they've been steered into supporting Putin's geopolitical agenda.

[belorn]

Assange's goal, as written down a long time ago, is to publish enough leaks to make secrecy costly, cumbersome and inefficient.

Is there any evidence for leaks that would have such effect but which wikileaks is not publishing?

[amyjess]

Wikileaks' actions this year have done nothing but prove to me that Wikileaks is just another arm of the alt-right.

When you add in Julian Assange's antisemitism and lack of respect for women, it all makes sense.

[somenomadicguy]

There might be a much simpler reason for all of this. Being stuck in the embassy for years has severely taxed his emotional stability, encouraging narcissism, paranoia, and victimhood. At the very least, his journalism is sloppy, irresponsible, and ever-decreasing in integrity.

[amyjess]

Both his sexual assaults and his antisemitism predate him running away to the embassy.

He ran away to the embassy in 2012 because he refused to take responsibility for his sexual assaults. In 2010 he hired Israel Shamir, an extremely outspoken antisemitic blogger, to help run Wikileaks, and a number of photographs show that they had been close friends for some time before Assange hired him. When he was confronted about this by Private Eye in 2011, he began spouting conspiracy theories about how the Jews were out to get him.

Assange is alt-right and has always been.

[eggy]

Let's separate Julian Assange and content of the leaks please. Ad hominem attacks are only meant to divert people from the content of the emails. Take them for what they are, not who rendered them to the public.

[amyjess]

The content of his leaks is irrelevant. What matters is the intent behind releasing them.

Assange being alt-right and the fact that he is going out of his way to leak material that improves the chances of the standard-bearer of the alt-right, Donald Trump, becoming head of state of the most powerful country on Earth are absolutely 100% linked together, and those links should be investigated.

Some information should not be public for a reason.

[jshevek]

I would say the exact opposite. Politically motivated speculation about someone's motives are irrelevant, it is the content of the leaks that matter.

[eggy]

Who decides what information should be public? The alt-right or the alt-left?

[somenomadicguy]

Assange is absolutely a criminal for breaking the terms of his bail. The sexual assault charges, however, are unproven, and he really deserves his day in court, whether he is guilty or innocent. I hadn't heard the anti-semite bit before, however.

[grandalf]

> lack of respect for women

Is there any evidence that he lacks respect for women? I have not yet seen any. He was accused of something which in Sweden is called "rape" but in the US would be called "consensual sex". Is that what you are referring to?

[alex_hitchins]

> In Sweden is called "rape" but in the US would be called "consensual sex"

If you have sex with someone and tell them you will use a condom and don't, that isn't consensual.

[grandalf]

True, however it is not typically labeled "rape" when the sexual contact aspect is consensual. It seems to constitute some sort of wrongdoing, but potentially also a misunderstanding. In any case, headlines and comments omitting this information and highlighting rape accusations are certainly intended to create a specific impression.

[soundwave106]

One of the charges as I understand it is Mr. Assange had sex with one of the accusers while she was asleep. That definitely seems to qualify as rape in Sweden penal code (https://lagen.nu/1962:700#K6P1S1 -- note I'm relying on Google Translate so corrections welcome).

Sweden is not the only country that considers sex with someone sleeping or otherwise unconscious as rape; a quick look at UK law for instance seems to bring this up in section 75 (http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/42). Even in Mr. Assange's native Australia, failure to withdraw from sexual intercourse after consent is withdrawn appears in itself to be considered "rape" in all districts but Queensland. (https://www.alrc.gov.au/publications/25.%20Sexual%20Offences...)

There are varying degrees of rape in Sweden, as I understand it Mr. Assange is being accused of the most minor degree of rape due to the circumstances. Still, it seems like what he is accused of is typically labeled "rape" in many places.

[grandalf]

Do you know the current status of the cases? I believe one or both was dropped at the behest of the accuser(s) or prosecutor.

[alex_hitchins]

> It seems to constitute some sort of wrongdoing

Saying you are wearing a condom when you aren't is wrongdoing.

[grandalf]

> Saying you are wearing a condom when you aren't is wrongdoing.

Of course it is. Assange disputed the accusation and claimed that there was mutual understanding of the status of the condom. In any case, barring an unwanted VD or pregnancy, it seems peculiar to decide to pursue legal action about this a month after the fact.

While it's possible that Assange acted boorishly and inappropriately, I think rape is not the right word to describe it. Would a woman who lied about having been on birth control reasonably be said to have raped a male partner?

[jshevek]

Claiming someone is alt-right is starting to have the feel of McCarthy era claims of communism. We are supposed to associate that label (and thus the person) with the deeply unsavory, without looking at their actual, specific positions and actions.

[forgottenpass]

Claiming someone is alt-right is starting to have the feel of McCarthy era claims of communism.

I don't know what they stand for. But I visit generally progressive-leaning places on the internet and know I'm supposed to hate them.

I still haven't even figured out who the "reactionaries" are or what they believe in. I think what happened is some people used the wrong word when talking about "contrarians" and through a game of telephone turned created a new political boogieman.

Is the conservative side of the (American) political spectrum really going through this much ideological turmoil and restructuring? I haven't heard about it in any of the mainstream news when I glace at it, nor from the conservatives I talk politics with at work. It looks like a way for the left to shill hate.

[pessimizer]

The alt-right is what happened when 4chan trolls, MRAs/PUAs, and Stormfront had a baby called 8chan.net/pol/

It's a small group of maybe 10,000, of which 5,000 don't even take the positions seriously, just love to troll millennial college "activist" consumer-types. The Clinton speech about the alt-right will have the same effect as Geraldo Rivera's goofy coverage of Neo-nazi skinheads in the 80s - multiplying their numbers a hundred-fold.

[jshevek]

> It's a small group [some of whom] don't even take the positions seriously, just love to troll millennial college "activist" consumer-types.

I completely agree that this group exists, that this phenomenon exists. However, it's also apparent from the way many people use the label "alt right", that they are not limiting themselves to describing this group.

[forgottenpass]

It's a small group of maybe 10,000, of which 5,000 don't even take the positions seriously

Then why the fuck is anyone talking about them? Is the left really so terrified of taking positions or believing in anything at all that they have to scrape the bottom of the barrel like this for something to talk about?

[makomk]

Probably because questioning whether they're really the big boogeyman is enough to mark you as one of them in the core, outspoken, well-connected parts of the left.

[jshevek]

You make a good point. Usually when somebody attempts to slander someone by saying they are alt right, they are exploiting our lack of awareness of equivocation fallacy.

There's a tiny group of terrible people who happen to also be alt right. We are supposed to associate any person who is labelled "alt right" with that tiny group even if they have nothing significant in common with them.

[jshevek]

> about "contrarians" and through a game of telephone turned created a new political boogieman.

That's an interesting suggestion. It does look like many so called alt righters seem to be contrarians, non-conformists, critics of mainstream ideology or 'normal' right wing ideology. We need more of those people, and we often benefit from listening to them.

Some of them have beliefs I find abhorrent, but they also clearly do not all share the same beliefs.

Narrow minded bloggers and such on the left have cultivated this widespread belief (among some liberals) that we should automatically despise and ignore anyone that gets labelled "alt right"

[CM30]

Alt-right is basically a fancy label for 'outside of the mainstream, doesn't like political correctness and isn't in favour of Clinton' by this point.

It's basically used like the 'Bernie Bros' thing was when he was still running for president. A near meaningless buzzword to insult people the user disagreed with.